


fate

by myrosebudboy



Category: Carry On - Rainbow Rowell
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-07
Updated: 2016-10-07
Packaged: 2018-08-20 02:04:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 824
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8232268
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/myrosebudboy/pseuds/myrosebudboy
Summary: a fic about ebb because ebb is 12/10(i'm awful at summaries i'm sorry)





	

Early on, Ebb decides she absolutely loathes politics.

“Come on, Ebb,” Nico pleads, sat with her on the stone steps of the grand main staircase of Watford, a week before their graduation. “We could do so much together. You heard what the Mage said.” His eyes glimmer with something feral, and she doesn’t like it in the slightest. “We could be the most powerful mages the world has ever seen. We are the most powerful mages the world has ever seen.”

That one, Ebb can’t deny. Alone, Nico and her have immense power, and possess impressive control over their magic. Together, they can be a hurricane, sweeping through and smashing everything to pieces with deadly accuracy.

(Together, they can destroy the world.)

The Mage’s voice is like silk, and his words are slippery smooth, coiling around both Ebb and Nico, deadly and silent. Ebb kicks them away as soon as they start to curl around her limbs. Nico is lost, entangled, entranced, completely bound in the spell of the Mage’s promises. Ebb doesn’t know how to shout through the layers to tell him how industrial silkworms are bred to make their own prisons because he’s too far gone.

She remembers the deadly silk of the Mage’s voice, so she turns away from the delicate tapestries adorning the walls of the mansions of the Old Families and plunges her hands into wool instead. _Waste of talent_ , they mumble. But she doesn’t care, just tends to her goats and uses her magic to gently guide them around the grounds with the smallest flicks of her fingers. She names all of them and gives them spontaneous hugs when the sun sets. Watford stands against the setting sun, and she marvels at how it never fails to look like a postcard, picture-perfect from far away. (She never goes closer, because she doesn’t want to see the poison seeping out from the tallest tower where the headmaster’s office rests.)

Simon Snow comes into her life in his first year at Watford and she keeps an eye on him. He’s braver than her, and much more determined, but she’s never deterred by the amount of magic he has, because she knows what it’s like to have too much power inside you. She watches him carefully and gives him cakes she’s baked whenever he visits her and shows him how she controls her herd with a simple focal point of magic. He tells her stories of Watford and of the Mage, and she misses the former and stays silent on the topic of the latter. She may have her own reservations, but Simon talks about him like he’s the father he never had, and so she doesn’t try to tell Simon anything, just listens and nods her head in response.

Six years later on a night all the stars are out, she’s regretting it all, she’s regretting never teaching Simon how to have greater control over his magic, she’s regretting not trying to take the Mage down from his position at Watford and in the World of Mages, she’s regretting not _trying why didn’t you try harder look what you’ve done_ and her heart is in her mouth as she sprints across the grounds. Her eyes never leave the White Chapel and the two tiny figures at its door and the glint of moonlight off blonde hair and all she can think as she tries to make her limbs go faster is _please don’t let me be too late please please please._

She bursts into the White Chapel and her body is thrumming with adrenaline and her mind is full of _this is ridiculous this is ridiculous this is utterly ridiculous_ because what kind of person takes a helpless mage to drain - she refuses to think slaughter - for more power? She’s breathing hard but her eyesight is clear and her mind is focused when she sees the Mage clutching Agatha Wellbelove and her stomach twists in anger.

Her hands curl into fists, and she feels power welling up inside her, easy and plentiful as ever.

She raises her hands, and they aren’t shaking at all, steady in the air, her magic crackling around her. “Run, Agatha!” She shouts, because she doesn’t want to hurt anyone, she’s never wanted to hurt anyone, but the Mage has a crazed light in his eyes and he’s advancing towards Agatha with the look of a maniac and all Ebb can think is to get him away from her. But Agatha is on the floor, eyes wide, sobbing and sobbing and sobbing and not moving, and Ebb makes her decision.

She locks eyes with the Mage. If this is a fight to the death, then so be it. But she’s not going to let him hurt any of her mages. Not a single one.

 ** _“Run for your life!”_** She screams, magic streaming out of her and engulfing her in waves, and she’s never felt more alive.


End file.
